On a Reading Roll

I feel inspired to write more for a time. I was rereading some of my prior posts and saw that I was remiss in following up to my book review from a couple of months ago. So here is my review of some of the books I said I'd talk about, plus a couple others.


Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert - This was the follow up to Eat, Love, Pray (which is now a movie that I've read isn't so good, especially if you haven't read the book). For those that liked ELP, you'll like Committed. If you didn't like ELP, well, why are you still reading her books? Committed follows Elizabeth's relationship with Felipe, they fly back and forth between the US and Felipe's business interests in Bali and elsewhere. After several multi-month long stays in the US, immigration finally says Felipe can't come in any more without a more permanent visa (especially in the post 9/11 US). So the couple has no choice. Either live outside the US or get married. Given that both Felipe and Elizabeth are divorced from prior unsuccessful marriages, neither of them, Liz in particular, is all that keen on getting married, but they want to stay together and be able to spend time in the US. So while waiting forever for Felipe's fiancee visa (I know what that feels like), the couple live in other countries, primarily very low expense southeast asian countries and Liz explores the concept and institution of marriage through other cultures.

What was interesting in this book was realizing that our current US (and western European) culture of "marriage for love" is really a very modern concept. The vast majority of our history shows that marriage has almost always been a 'civil' arrangement, primarily to breed children and/or combine family interests/business/money. In poorer cultures, marriage was just something you did with someone agreeable enough when it was time to have children. In richer cultures, of course, a lot of time it was a business decision by parents to combine money, land, titles, etc. Love rarely, if ever, factored into the decision to get married, but it may have developed over time. Most of the time, it was good enough if you liked the person, or at least could stand to be in the same room together and share a bed now and again. That's why hardly anyone ever got divorced. No one in Liz's travels mentioned this ideal of a "soul mate" or the "one true love" that seems to drive so many Americans to divorce when their marriage lives aren't perfect.

The only real flaw in Elizabeth's work is that the vast majority of her interviews and opinions are garnered from women, very little is contributed to by men, who are really half of the marriage equation. While the book explains why the women never seem interested in being with a man other than one's husband (at least for sex), there isn't a similar query made to the men, many of whom aren't always satisfied with just one woman. There was no research as to what happens if the man does go outside the marriage, did that have any affect at all? There also wasn't any inquiry as to whether homosexual interests ever arose and what affect that could have. So, a bit like EPL, you feel like you're just getting half the story, but its still a good read.


"The Nanny Returns" - Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Krause (follow-up to "The Nanny Diaries"). The protagonist of The Nanny Diaries returns to NYC after about 10 years with her husband (whom she met in TND), who is the son of one of the NYC 'society women' whom Nanny derides. This book contains two stories, Nanny's relationship with Mrs. X and her new job at a private school funded by the X's, with a small subplot of Nanny's friendship with an old friend who appears to be a 'budding Ms. X.' The book continues on the same topic of how people in the X's circle are shallow, only interested in appearances, and don't give a damn about "the little people" who actually work. However, the treatment of the teachers at the school certainly isn't limited to the rich, we see that in middle-class public schools as well, except that there's a little less control over the teacher's jobs. Still an interesting look of how having a lot of money can change one's priorities, especially when children are involved.

"Think Twice" by Lisa Scottoline. Another book where Bennie's twin sister shows up to wreck havoc in Bennie's life. The twin is able to kidnap Bennie and assume her life for several days, while she tries to steal all of Bennie's life savings. Apparently the twin is able to do this because no one really knows Bennie well enough to see all the inconsistencies when the twin assumes Bennie's life and work. Eventually Bennie realizes this and vows to change her life so she will become closer to people. I suppose this was supposed to make people realize that they need others in their lives and not to be so isolated from people you work with and to make real friends. Frankly, I found it a bit inconceivable that Bennie had no close friend who knew her well enough to spot the fake and even those people that saw the differences just assumed Bennie wanted to act differently, even when these people knew Bennie had a con-artist twin sister. Also, lesson learned from Bennie: don't write your computer/bank/email passwords down in a Rollodex on your desk under the card marked "passwords." And this is supposed to be a very smart lawyer?

"Silks" and "Even Money" by Dick Francis and Felix Francis. These are the last two books written by (or with) Dick Francis before his death. His son, Felix, wrote with him. Its a bit unclear as to how much input Dick had in these books, given his age. Almost certainly he's not the one doing the bulk of the research, as his wife used to do it before her death, about 10 years or so ago (which nearly stopped the books completely, it appears, until Felix stepped up to the plate to help). The books are very much written in Dick's style and after reading all of his books (of which I think there are about 30 or so), they definitely have a pattern. The protagonist is nearly always a fairly meek man who gets caught up in circumstances beyond his control and a bit out of his depth, certainly violence wise. Almost always either the protagonist or a close friend ends up having some crucial skill that helps the protagonist defeat the bad guy. Almost always there's a 'thrill' scene where the bad guy threatens the protagonist's female companion. The main interests I've had in the books is how Francis combines horses (nearly always involving racing) with some other topic, such as photography, wine-making, banking, painting, or in the case of these two stories, bookmaking (i.e. gambling) and being an attorney. I'll be curious to see whether Felix Francis continues on writing the books.


"Blood Oath" by Christopher Farnsworth. I really liked this book. Its about a new vampire discovered by shortly after the civil war and "pardoned" by President Andrew Jackson and bound by a voodoo oath to serve only the President of the United States and men directly under his control. The vampire then helps serve and defend the US from other supernatural threats, which in this book are 'frankenstein' monsters put together from corpses of fallen soldiers set loose by radical Islamic terrorists. The book is clearly written as the first in the series, as all the necessary parties survive, and future encounters with involved villains are expected. I thought the book was well written, paced well and the characters well created. Looking forward to the sequel.

On vacation I read "The Alibi Man" by Tami Hoag and "Valhallan Rising" by Clive Cussler. Both were my 'throwaway' vacation books, paperbacks I had bought (at library sales) because they looked somewhat interesting, but knew I didn't want to keep them. So I took them on vacation with the intent of reading them, then leaving them for someone else to pick up and read on their vacation. Less stuff to take home, more room for souvenirs. Both were ok as diversions, but clearly just that. "The Alibi Man" involved a murder-mystery in Florida, which naturally makes you think its one person, but ends up being the completely no-way other person. "Valhallan Rising" was another story involving Cussler's main protagonist, Dirk Pitt, as he solves a mystery that starts hundred or so years before. I've read a couple of these books now and just can't really get into Cussler's world. I'm always a bit suspicious of the 'superman' who seems to be able to do everything and anything.


I'll be doing a separate post on the Julia Child book, as it's fairly extensive. I've also read through several of Wil Wheaton's books that I plan on posting about. Still working my way through Laurell K. Hamilton's latest, "Divine Misdemeanors." Its been taking a bit of a back shelf to other books I'm on a deadline with for the library, and frankly, some of her books are starting to plod a bit as well. Plus its big and hard to port around. I'm also in the middle of "The Passage" by Justin Cronin, another new vampire-type book (and this one clearly needed an editor).